ONE Campaign sells beads to ‘make poverty history’

Typically reserved for campaign slogans or, as of late, voter registration forms, the Lit Desk in the Indiana Memorial Union featured an unusual product: jewelry.

The IU chapter of the ONE Campaign, a campaign to “make poverty history,” sold accessories women from Uganda made from recycled paper Tuesday. The members will be selling bracelets, loose beads, necklaces, earrings and jewelry bags for the organization BeadforLife from 12:30 to 6 p.m. through Friday.

The sale featured an array of multi-colored jewelry, from lush emerald green earrings to fiery orange bracelets. Proceeds from the sale will go to generate stability in Uganda.

Freshman member Michaela Brown said after spending two summers in Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and South Africa, she was inspired to find an organization that was committed to improving the dire situation in Africa.

While the prices were reasonable for students, Brown said the purchases could amount to several meals for one woman in Uganda.

“The exchange rate is not very much because the economy is so bad,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of money to them.”

In addition to the jewelry, the group is also selling a CD titled “From the Heart of BeadforLife” featuring a female Ugandan choir and note cards with photographs of the bead makers.

While the foot traffic remained slow during some parts of the day, the group members were pleased with their work. By 4 p.m. the members had sold almost $200 worth of merchandise. One difficulty the group faced was students’ lack of ability to pay. Brown said many interested students promised they would return later in the week with cash.

Junior Lauren Plewacki said the group’s mission is to inform students regarding crises going on in third-world countries fits in with the mission of BeadforLife.

“ONE is striving to pretty much educate people about the extreme poverty and disease and starvation that’s going on all over the world,” Plewacki said. “It basically starts with education.”

While recruiter and senior Emma D’Arcy said they are trying to sell their whole inventory of jewelry, they mainly want their fellow Hoosiers to come away with more knowledge.

“It’s about awareness,” she said. “The money’s awesome, but it doesn’t do anything if people are flinging money, and they don’t care.”

Plewacki said students tended to linger at the desk once they heard profits from the sale would go to charity.

“It definitely sparks a little more of an interest in someone,” she said. “It’s not just random beads on the table.”

Sophomore and secretary Astrid Richardson said another big goal for ONE is to encourage students as constituents to petition their local and national governments to set aside money in the budget to aid developing countries.

“It’s more about getting money from politicians, contacting your congressman,” Richardson said. “(With) the election coming up, what the candidates are going to do about it.”